Wil Wheaton Rips Into The Discovery Channel For Ruining Shark Week

Earlier this week, the Discovery Channel kicked off its annual Shark Week with a fake documentary, Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives. The film, which was not initially labeled as fake, led viewers to believe that the extinct Megalodon was still around and responsible for sinking a ship. It soon became obvious, of course, that the documentary was fake, but that didn’t stop furious Discovery viewers from throwing a giant hissy fit.

Anyway, in an open letter on his website, an enraged Wil Wheaton took the channel to task, explaining why he was so upset that Discovery aired Megalodon and why the network should be ashamed of itself for ruining Shark Week.

I care about education. I care about science. I care about inspiring people to learn about the world and universe around us. Sharks are fascinating, and megalodon was an absolutely incredible creature! Discovery had a chance to get its audience thinking about what the oceans were like when megalodon roamed and hunted in them. It had a chance to even show what could possibly happen if there were something that large and predatory in the ocean today … but Discovery Channel did not do that. In a cynical ploy for ratings, the network deliberately lied to its audience and presented fiction as fact. Discovery Channel betrayed its audience.

An entire generation has grown up watching Discovery Channel, learning about science and biology and physics, and that generation trusts Discovery Channel. We tune into Discovery Channel programming with the reasonable expectation that whatever we’re going to watch will be informative and truthful. We can trust Discovery Channel to educate us and our children about the world around us! That’s why we watch it in the first place!

Last night, Discovery Channel betrayed that trust during its biggest viewing week of the year … That is disgusting, and whoever made that decision should be ashamed! … There is nothing high quality or enlightening about deliberately misleading your audience during what is historically an informative and awesome week of programming.

Someone from the network should … apologize for deliberately misleading [their audience], and recommit to providing the highest quality content this week, and every other week out of the year.

No doubt, y’all. Shark Week is sacred. It’s the one week every August where families can come together and learn and bask in the glory of these powerful, deadly creatures. NOT COOL, DISCOVERY CHANNEL.

Wil Wheaton is not someone you want to piss off, and more importantly, not someone you want to let down.

TLC when it was the Learning Channel actually was formed by the Department of Education and NASA funding it. With the funding there was a set % of educational programming that the station had to broad cast. However, in the 90’s the Discovery Channel bought them out and that’s when TLC really stopped being “The Learning Channel”.

Wait a second, Wil Wheaton…..am I to believe that a creature that went extinct more than 3 million years ago isn’t still alive today and actively terrorizing humans and aquatic life? Forsooth! What next? That the glowing orb in the sky that signifies daytime isn’t mighty Apollo riding his fiery chariot through the heavens???

I watched one program so far during Shark Week. It involved three mentally deficient people in the Louisiana bayou looking for some mythical giant shark. They tried to track a bull shark up the Mississippi using a clip-on radio transmitter. Radio waves don’t travel underwater. They got in a shark cage in bayou waters so murky that visibility was about 8 inches. There was approximately zero scientific information offered during the program. I won’t be watching any more of Shark Week.

This is ridiculous. You fucking dorks take Shark Week way too seriously. What does it really fucking matter if they aired a dumb mockumentary?

And I’ve had enough of Wil Wheaton. He’s starting to come across like the self imposed “voice of the nerds!” and that’s not a voice anyone should be proud of. He’s insufferable, and of course someone like Dustin would think he’s the shit.

There is nothing “self imposed” about it. Wil Wheaton has been saying what he thinks on his site for a long time, long before his current wave of popularity. Say what you want about the role of “voice of the nerds” but Wheaton seems to be a decent guy who says what he thinks, and doesn’t end his rant or praises with an “right, guys?” which a self-proclaimed “voice of anything” tends to do.